MOMocrats™

Obama on Education

Senator Obama was in Colorado the other day, getting all wonky with a group of teachers, students, and public education professionals.

For more than 20 minutes, the Illinois Democrat laced the language of uplift and challenge with the acronyms of education and reform: GEAR UP and TRIO, a proposed Service Scholarship program to replace retiring teachers, a Teacher Residency Program to recruit them at mid-career from other professions, and the Career Ladder Initiative to reward teachers who mentor others.

If you'd like to review the text of his prepared remarks, you can find them here.

Mother's Day Weekend at the Missouri Democratic Convention

Last Friday, May 9th my husband and I, who were both elected state-level Obama delegates at our township caucus, drove to Columbia, Missouri for the Missouri State Democratic Convention.

May 9th was my son's fourth birthday, and I had a hard time leaving him behind, even though we'd already had a party for him one day early. But, I've become so involved in the political process this year for my son, because I worry about his future if our society continues down its current path. I skipped out on his fourth birthday because I don't want him signing up to be drafted for the war in Iraq on his eighteenth. Because I don't want him struggling to afford housing or health care on his thirtieth. Because I don't want him lacking access to clean water or affordable food on his fortieth.

Of course, it's hard to explain all that to a kid on his fourth birthday. So I still felt a little guilty.

It turns out, though, that I wasn't the only one with our children's future at the forefront of my thoughts at the Convention over Mother's Day weekend.

Elizabeth Edwards testifies before US Senate on Funding The Cancer Fight, Healthcare reform

Elizabeth Edwards and Lance Armstrong are backing legislation sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, that would create a more comprehensive approach to fighting cancer. Both testified before the U.S. Senate today on the importance of cancer research, prevention and treatment funding.

Christine-Modern English

McCain and the Iraq War: Was it for Oil, or Weapons of Mass Destruction?

Maybe it was a misspoke that flew off the miswheel of the Mistake Talk Express.

But the other day, Senator John McCain implied that we went to war in Iraq for the oil (video and transcript).

Silly me! I thought the reason we were given was that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was about to have Osama bin Laden over for tea and biscuits to discuss their use.

Apparently NOT. So perhaps to say the war was for oil is more true than otherwise. And setting aside how furious 4,000 + needlessly lost American lives and countless more Iraqi deaths makes me...

I want to know why McCain thinks lifting a federal excise gas tax of 18.4c/gallon will do anything to actually help people who are feeling the squeeze from summer gas price increases.

Because IF we did fight in Iraq to "protect" a vast oil supply, then it sure wasn't for the consumer's benefit. The price of oil is at record $120 or so per barrel. And the 18.4c/gallon (or whopping $30 for the summer) saved at the pump won't go into your pocket, nor will it go to highway repair projects that the federal excise tax is otherwise intended for. That's clear as day.

Cynematic pays attention, here and at her personal blog, P i l l o w b o o k.

On citizen journalists and the validity of accounts

The fireball that has erupted over a comment made at a fund raiser has knocked me off my feet. Over the past few days, what amounts to a standard, though creatively written account of another political event/fund raiser by a citizen journalist has become the fuel for an insane amount of intolerance described here that is almost as hateful as the thinking Barack Obama is being labeled for with his remarks on economically disadvantaged small-town people.

Do I need to get into all the reasons why one might expect a man who has campaigned for last 15 months or so all over the U.S. to know better than to phrase his remarks as such? Well, that is not where I'm headed, and quite frankly, I say this with all honesty, it often falls on deaf ears. However, I do intend to speak out for my citizen journalist colleague, Mayhill Fowler, with whom I, and a number of other of other contributors, have written on The Huffington Post's Off the Bus since June of last year.

Mayhill, as far as I have known, is unabashedly supportive of Obama. She also has very keen eyes and ears as her writing attests. She is very artful at describing the scene and the atmosphere as well as the reaction she experiences at campaign events. Over the last several months, I have read her many posts, of which a vast majority are favorable to Obama's campaign efforts. And I have followed with a slight sort of envy her outright dedication to covering the campaigns, which isn't always possible when you have young children under foot as I do.

Therefore, I am appalled at the amount of backlash she has received for having written her account of this expensive San Francisco fund raiser. I have attended numerous campaign events and throughout my years training as a journalist, I've covered events, people, issues I did and did not care about, much as a citizen journalist or any journalist for that matter would cover. Some were favorable to an idea or candidate I supported, some were critical. But, all were written from the truth as I believe Mayhill's account was written.

What I don't understand is how ordinary Americans can go on the defensive over the work of a citizen journalist, who is more like they are, than any big name paid reporter on any big news operation anywhere.

The value in the citizen journalist's account is that, unlike the paid reporter, they work for free. They are beholden to no one but themselves. And therefore, they are under no  obligation to write, cover or opine about subjects but from their own unique perspective.

We must remember the amount of varying viewpoints, accounts, thoughts and questions citizen journalists may pose is the very cornerstone to the idea a free press, most crucial in this age of corporate controlled big media.

Let us not become so embedded in our support of a candidate at the expense of free thought and dissent that we forget the underlying foundation that allows our candidate his or her platform in the first place.

-Christine Modern English

Candidates Clinton, Obama, and McCain Remember Dr. King

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968.

Clinton and Obama Speeches on the Economy

  Conventional wisdom repeated often enough gets mistaken for truth--take for example the hoary old chestnut that Clinton and Obama offer almost the same proposals. Well, I've gone through their speeches addressing the economic fallout from the subprime mortgage mess which has metastasized into widespread financial market meltdown, and found distinct differences in approach and emphasis.

It's true that both candidates support passage of the Dodd-Frank bill (more here). But in terms of their identification of solutions, the two differ widely.

First a summary of each candidate's speech, then a discussion of the differences.

What's your story?

I listened to Barack Obama's speech in snippets this morning between getting kids to school and other obligations. I usually keep KQED, my local NPR station, on while I'm at home so all day long I heard more sound bites as they pertained to the on-going analysis from every angle.

I read the text while I had lunch, but I didn't get to watch the speech until tonight, when I stole away to bedroom while J., my husband, got the girls ready for bed.

Listening and reading is not like watching.

Obama, Being Presidential

The transcript of his speech on race, racism, and our flawed, though perfectible, union is here.

Can we get back discussing the candidates and what they bring to substantive issues in ways that either better define our problems, or point toward solutions now?

Cynematic is for less "he-said, she-said" negative campaigning, and for more running a good campaign, winning, and then being a good president. Her personal blog is P i l l o w b o o k.

Clinton and Obama: Out of the Mud and Aim for the Stars

Dear Senators Clinton and Obama,

May I presume to give you both a little campaign advice from an opinionated Jane Chu Public (ha! I made an Asian American pun!) and voter?

Look, it's always hard to be a Democrat. Most of the time, especially in the progressive wing of the party, we're holding our noses as we vote and hoping for the best. We don't often attend many victory parties. But we keep hoping and voting.

Between now and April 22, when the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary occurs, I challenge each of you to give a public speech where you inspire us. Step back out of the muck--there's been a lot of it lately--and take the long view. Tell us how wonderful our country is when it's at its best, and how we're going to get there again. Because the road to that exalted state seems really far away. Even more distant when the nominee on the other side of the aisle promises "100 years in Iraq" if that's what it takes. Even if it bankrupts our souls and our pocketbooks.